DREAD, RASTAFARI AND ETHIOPIA The definitive historical report of the beginning and the rise of the RastafarI movement in the Commonwealth of Dominica is part autobiographical and part fictional and definitely documentary. The author has chosen a writing style that is both informative and entertaining and seeks to throw new light on such epic chapters in Dominica’s history as the passage of the notorious Prohibited and Unlawful Societies and Associations Act 1974(The Dread Act)

by the Patrick John administration in 1974. The act was intended to disgrace, and eliminate the Dreads, but what it did, was to give them a legitimacy that distinguished the brothers from their Rastafarian counterparts in Jamaica. Still, it is ironic that eloquent as he was ,on the jargon used by the ‘Dreads’ , and by the very definition the then Premier John summarised the meaning of ‘Dread‘, as terrorist , that less than seven years later he would found guilty of treason and branded a terrorist himself.

The book also revisit’s the historic trial of black activist, and thinker, Desmond Trotter and his subsequent death sentence for the killing of an American, John Jirasek which was deemed by activist worldwide as a conspiracy to silence the leading organiser of the dreads and compares this to the killing of the father of, Lenox Honychurch Dominica’s historian and author, during a altercations between the brethren and the police in the hills above Roseau, and we speak with Eric Joseph, who was released from prison after 27 years for the murder. Again, no one until now, has been brave enough to ‘sit in the dust with the brethren’ and ‘reason’ with the brethren to go beyond the stereo-type and systemic propaganda published by the John administration’s radio station, and sympathetic weeklies.

DREAD, RASTAFARI AND ETHIOPIA The definitive historical report of the beginning and the rise of the RastafarI movement in the Commonwealth of Dominica is a candid and sincere account from the mouths and hearts of those whose side of the story has not until now been told. It is an in-depth-exposition that is destined to leave an indelible mark in Dominica’s publishing history. The informative text comes replete with archival photographs and illustrations; profiles of distinguished Rastafarians, both living and dead who stories deserve to be recorded within the scope of this book; a glossary of words peculiar to the dread era and an index for easy search and find of topical subjects. DREAD, RASTAFARI AND ETHIOPIA The definitive historical report of the beginning and the rise of the RastafarI movement in the Commonwealth of Dominica, will serve as a platform for future academics and researchers to further argue who are the Dreads, and who are the Rastafarians in Dominica.